Vishwaksena - Redemption of an economic hitman

Based on "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins

Structure inspired by "The Hero's Journey" by Joseph Campbell

In 1983 Kalikartha, a Madurai-based martial arts teacher, and a talented sickle swinger as well, in Jaffna loses his family during the civil war. He then joined LTTE and worked there from 1984 to 2009. After the assassination of the leader Prabhakaran, he migrates with an explosive which can be tied up in the chest, to Tamil Nadu, by entering Rameshwaram, as a refugee to perform a suicide attack on the CM of Tamil Nadu, as he blindly believes that he had involvement in the genocide happened in 1983.

Back in 2016, Nadhiya Veluchamy was the founder of 'Venus Constructions', a corporate company in Philadelphia. When it was in Chennai, Veluchamy was the MD whose place was succeeded by their elder son Vishwaksena after his death due to cancer. His twin brother Vikrasena separated from them after being abused during a huge rivalry with Vishwaksena when he borrowed debts from someone for something despite being rich. Vishwaksena and Nadhiya believed him to be dead. A few months later Nadhiya did foreign investment in Philadelphia and eventually settled there.

One fine day Vishwaksena gives a speech on the life of a civil engineer in TedxTalks. In his speech, he says "Being a builder is not just about assembling the stones and making a building thereby converting your time into money. It's all about civilizing our world which is assumed to be left incomplete by God. If you are born in poverty you will have a dream of making your sons and daughters get born with a silver spoon. Same way, it's all about making this world a luxurious place to live for the subsequent generations tomorrow. This dream is what makes me wake up every morning and do my job. So YOU be a compassionate builder. Let your BUILDING be commercial and macro economical."

After seeing this speech, the National Security Agency requests Vishwaksena for a meeting. They propose him to become an economic hitman and construct large buildings and engineering projects in India ensuring that these projects were contracted to U.S. companies, such loans provide political influence for the US and access to natural resources for American companies, thus primarily helping rich families and local elites, rather than the poor. When Viswaksena refuses this proposal they offer him 60 crores and then he accepts.

Also, Nadhiya asks Vishwaksena to build a Shiva Temple in Chennai in the name of Vikrasena as a remedy for what they did to him to which Vishwaksena accepts.

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy fami-lies who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrify-ing dimensions during this time of globalization.

— John Perkins, Preface, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Vishwaksena flies to Chennai and stays with his collegemate Ranjith. Towards the south way outside of the city of Chennai, a big Shiva temple is constructed which is black in colour and in a board which is written as Vikrasena's Shiva temple. An account is created in Vikrasena's name for receiving the temple's revenues.

One fine day Vishwaksena and Ranjith visit the temple where Vishwaksena vows for the success as a hitman. While driving back towards the city in the highways, they see 10 people chasing a politician dressed in a white shirt and dhoti. One among the 10, named Krishnajeet throws the sickle against him which chops his leg and he falls down on the road and Vishwaksena stops the car after reaching quite close to him. When the politician pleads them to spare him, a Volvo SUV type car arrives at the place and stops there. A person dressed in black shirt and pant gets down from the driver seat with a sickle and walks towards the politician and chops him to death. Vishwaksena and Ranjith shocked as that person dressed in black is no one other than VIKRASENA!

Vishwaksena calls and informs his mother about this which shocks her. "We have constructed a temple as a remedy for someone who is alive. We can't destroy the temple nor we can run the temple. Ask Ranjith to undertake the temple and please come back to me. I don't want to lose you along with Vikram. Please return, Vish ", says Nadhiya. Vishwaksena says "Now I won't come. As you say let Ranjith undertake the temple. Let me finish the task which I am paid for from NSA and then return back." and cuts the phone. Nadhiya, as a mother, feels guilt for Vikrasena.

The next day before sunrise Vishwaksena gets a nightmare like someone being chased by some goons towards the temple and eventually getting chopped to death. Around 10 AM he drives all along to the temple and witnesses a person chased by goons. Before a goon who is closer to the person attempts to chop him, Vishwaksena hits the goon to death. When he gets off the car and see who the person is he is shocked as the person is Shravan, the supervisor during the temple construction. Vishwaksena grabs the licensed revolver from the dashboard and shoots all the goons.

One afternoon Shravan and Vishwaksena have a conversation in the temple wherein Shravan says that he was chased by Vikrasena's henchmen and also that he knows about the life history of Vikrasena.

When Vikrasena ran out of his house in 2009 he boarded a bus and went to Rameshwaram and was working in BPO as a call centre representative with a salary of Rs. 70 per hour. One fine day, He learns about the NSA's plans for building engineering projects using a hitman in India through a diverted call from the US. That evening, he went to the beach and was thinking about this. There he saw refugees entering the shore. Shravan and Kalikartha are one among them. Both of them befriended each other in the boat.

While getting down from the boat a few Sri Lankan goons who disguised as refugees attacked them. When one among them grabbed a sickle, Vikrasena entered the scene, held his hand, and twisted it and the sickle chopped the goon's throat. Using that sickle Vikrasena fought the goons, killed them, and disposed of the body in the middle of the sea. Kalikartha was delighted after seeing Vikrasena's sickle-swinging style which was very professional and artistic.

Vikrasena and Kalikartha reveal their pasts to each other. Vikrasena says "Don't kill the CM. Look forward for his chair. Just tell me whom I should slew. I will do anything for you.". Vikrasena became a gangster, dressed in black, having the remaining refuges as his henchmen, and gave a warning to the people to give respect to Kalikartha.

He was frequently jailed and released in the Gondas Act. After earning lakhs and crores of money, Vikrasena started a sickle factory called "Vikrasena Weapons" in Chennai and also became a gangster. Literally, Kalikartha became a social activist. After investing blood and sweat for the people, he started a political party and Vikrasena became a party man supporting him. Eventually, Kalikartha was elected as the opposition leader in the Feb 2016 election. Using its influence Vikrasena escapes from the federations. Shravan became a supervisor in a construction company in Chennai.

A Few months later, Krishnajeet, who was working in a welding shop in Thiruvallur, came and joined 'Vikrasena Weapons' and the political party after absconding from Thiruvallur and not being able to pay the house rent. Vikrasena trained him with sickle swinging and after seeing his skills he appointed him as his right hand as a gangster and a partner in business. Eventually, they became closest friends. So many party-men from the ruling party were assassinated by Vikrasena and the team using the poison-applied sickles manufactured in the factory. The normal sickles were sold and made a profitable business.

One fine day Vikrasena and Krishnajeet were having conversations about their pasts and Kalikartha's past. When Krishnajeet talked about his poverty, Vikrasena shut him up and said "The luxurious thing in life is its emptiness which maximizes the size of empathy and if everything is easy around a person, it means he is climbing down the hill and if he suffers continuously, it means he is climbing to the peak. Do you think I'm very happy as a gangster? I don't know who will betray and backstab me. Even when someone befriends me they'll be having a crucial plan in the back of their minds.".

Krishnajeet suddenly got a strike about the fight which happened in Rameshwaram beach. He said, "Well, in that case, the same thing would have happened in Kalikartha's case also no? How do those goons know about Kalikartha? I'm suspecting Shravan.". Vikrasena says "Oh my God. I don't have a Sherlockian mind like you. As I taught you sickle swinging, someday you teach me the anatomy of Sherlock Homes" and laughed.

Krishnajeet laughed and said "Ok ok. Jokes apart. Listen to me. Instruct the henchmen as I say. Each having a sickle in their hands, they should go and walk against Shravan. If he runs, then it means he thinks that we are aware of the truth. Otherwise, he is innocent.". When Vikrasena's henchmen did as instructed, Shravan ran from them and was chased. When he reached the temple he was saved by Vishwaksena and the story comes to the present.

Vishwaksena asks why Shravan wanted to kill Kalikartha. Shravan reveals that his father and Kalikartha had caste disputes in Madurai. Kalikartha's wife Nagavalli was Shravan's elder sister and was also a martial arts student of Kalikartha. When Nagavalli had an affair with Kalikartha, her father attempted to kill her out of honor. Nagavalli slew her father using a sickle (which was kept for sacrificing goats for lord Meenakshi Amman) and eloped with Kalikartha to Jaffna, got married, and had children. Shravan to avenge his father's death went to Jaffna and paid some Sri Lankan goons to kill Kalikartha (on the previous day of the journey from there to Rameshwaram) which failed. So on the day of the journey, they disguise themselves as refugees and attempted to kill him in Rameshwaram but is saved by Vikrasena. On contrary, in the boat, Kalikartha shared with Shravan about his past family life in which he seemed to be a good husband and a father and Shravan lost interest in killing him as he understood that he took care of his sister very nicely.

On hearing this Vishwaksena understands his mother's love for him and that how his brother's love would have been if he had not fought with him for the matter of the debt. He decides to draw back the mission provided to him by the NSA.

What finally convinced me to ignore the threats and bribes?

The short answer is that my only child, Jessica, graduated from college and went out into the

world on her own. When I recently told her that I was considering publishing this book and

shared my fears with her, she said, "Don't worry, dad. If they get you, I'll take over where you left

off. We need to do this for the grandchildren I hope to give you someday!" That is the short

answer.

—John Perkins, Preface, Confessions of an Economic Hitman

He gets an appointment to meet Kalikartha and reveals him all the truth and donates the 60 crores to his party so that it can be used for the welfare of the state and the poor people (Contrast to the mission by NSA). Kalikartha accepts and calls Vikrasena to spare Shravan. Vikrasena says that he can spare Shravan but not Vishwaksena as he killed his henchmen and criticises Kalikartha for getting money from a corporate jew.

I had watched Venezuela for many years. It was a classic example of a country that rose from

rags to riches as a result of oil. It was also a model of the turmoil oil wealth foments, of the

disequilibrium be-tween rich and poor, and of a country shamelessly exploited by the

corporatocracy. It had become the epitome of a place where old-style EHMs like me converged

with the new-style, corporate version.

—John Perkins, Venezuela: Saved by Saddam, Chapter 33, Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Misunderstanding arises between Kalikartha and Vikrasena on the phone in front of Vishwaksena. Vishwaksena immediately calls Nadhiya and reveals what is happening around. Nadhiya decides to close the company and Kalikartha reveals this to Vikrasena and says "All currency notes have the same fragrance and does not adapt according to its former holder.". Vikrasena says "Wow! Wonderful logic. I drank so many drops of blood for you. Just like that, you'll abandon me for the money.".

Vishwaksena vigorously grabs the phone from Kalikartha and talks to Vikrasena. He says "Of course I came to India as a Hitman. Of course, I came to destroy the families who rule the natural resources and let the NSA rule and eat everything. But there is one step difference between you and me. Your 'Vikrasena weapons' was developed using bloodstains. But my Venus construction was developed using our mother's blood and sweat. Just for the single fact that it was a corporate company, I'm gonna close it permanently. Same way, can you close the 'Vikrasena Weapons' because of it's illegal growth?". Vikrasena says "You bloody jew! Who the hell are you to advise me? You have invested your blood and sweat for building a temple as a remedy for an alive person. What you did is nasty than what I'm doing. I killed and organized funerals for real dead bodies but you literally did it for an alive person.". Vishwaksena says "For that sin as well I'm closing my company.".

Vikrasena laughs at him and says "Do you think lord Shiva will accept this comedy? Imagine you don't know who your father is. If someone asks you about him what you will answer? Say 'I don't know' and they'll call your mother a slut. The same thing applies to God as well right? Everything in this world requires a God-father, my dear. In any way, the temple belongs to your company right?". An angry Vishwaksena shouts at him "VIKRASENA!!!!!!!". Vikrasena says "Hey don't think you are so smart. Prepare an answer for lord Shiva.". Vishwaksena says "Listen! I'm going to ask Ranjith to undertake the temple. It will no longer belong to us." Vikrasena laughs and says "Oh Exchange of fathers. Excellent excellent. You are becoming a pimp for lord Shiva." and cuts the phone.

Kalikartha says "One of my ideologies is banning the debt system in Tamil Nadu. Had this system never existed in the state, both of you might have lived together by now.".

Vishwaksena flies back to Philadelphia, calls Shravan and says "You wanted to be a backstabber right? Do it again." and instructs him a plan.

As instructed, Shravan joins the ruling party and later informs the leader that Vishwaksena built the temple in the name of Vikrasena. Then the leader hires some goons and sets fire on the temple. Vikrasena arrives with a poisoned sickle and kills the goons. Now the temple is finally destroyed.

Later Shravan, according to Vishwaksena's instruction, becomes approval and confesses that the ruling party leader hired the goons and set fire on the temple. The leader is arrested and the party is permanently dissolved and Kalikartha becomes the CM of Tamil Nadu.

After taking oath as CM, Kalikartha first passes the banning of debt in Tamil Nadu which disturbs Vikrasena and makes him recall the rivalry between him and Vishwaksena for borrowing money. He then realizes his mistake and apologizes to Vishwaksena, Kalikartha and to Nadhiya for his behavior. Than he surrenders for what he did in the temple and gets imprisoned in Puzhal jail.

Kalikartha's government continues.

In Iraq, all the subtle efforts —

both the EHMs and the jackals — had failed to force Saddam to comply, and now we were

preparing for the ultimate solution, invasion.

—John Perkins, Venezuela: Saved by Saddam, Chapter 33, Confessions of an Economic Hitman

-Written by Vishal